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Business in a Ditch? Here’s How to Pull It Out

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Businesses can fail and you might think it’s not worth putting up a fight to save it from total collapse, but you’ll be surprised at how reasonable it is to save your business from a bad situation. Not everyone thinks that it’s worth the effort or time, but when you have employees on the line who rely on your business for their income and customers who love your products, you have a duty as a business owner to not fail them. If your business has been dropped into a ditch with seemingly no way out, then this guide will serve as your light at the end of the tunnel.

Chasing Down Clients

This first tip depends on the type of business you run. If you work on a per-client basis with fluctuating payout dates, then it might be worth chasing down your clients and requesting they pay as soon as possible. It’s never a good idea to let these clients get away with making late payments and it might ruin your business relationships with those customers, but you ideally want to be paid on time anyway. If your business is in a ditch, then you need to use drastic measures to save it. If that means crossing off a late-paying client from your list, then so be it.

Seeking Help

Unsurprisingly, there are businesses dedicated to helping get other businesses out of debt. These insolvency practitioners not only offer advice but also plans of action to get you started on putting your business back into the green. Turning your business around and recovering it from almost certain failure is going to cost a lot of money and you’ll have to pay quite a lot for their services, but if it’s between disappointing your customers and having a functional and stable business, it’s clear that it’s worth the cost.

Selling Assets

One of the best ways to recover some additional money to pay off your debts is to sell off any additional assets that you don’t need. For instance, you could sell off a few extra computers you don’t need, you could get rid of furniture that hasn’t seen use, or you could even sell assets such as transportation vehicles and close down certain parts of your business like a delivery service. Unfortunately, if you want to save your business you’re going to have to make do with some compromises. Businesses often end up in debt because they were too eager to grow and, as a result, have many assets left over that never saw use. Sell these off, recuperate your losses, and aim for something more reasonable next time.

Crowdfunding

This is again very specific to certain businesses, but if you’re struggling to operate then you can always look to your customers for help. If you provide a service which is mainly free, such as a blog or a video website, then you don’t actually charge your customers for anything and most of your income is from advertising or affiliate programs. If you have great relationships with your “customers”, then you can offer them premium services for a subscription price, open a Patreon account, or even ask for donations to help cover running costs.